Prior art shoelace knot retainers have not been altogether satisfactory. The shoelace knot retainer of this invention is an improvement on prior art devices such as those shown in my U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,106,003 and 3,229,340. The shoelace knot retainers described in those two patents were designed so that an entire knot and ends of the laces are enclosed within the device, and thus, the devices were only suitable for shoes of infants having short laces. Likewise, the shoe tie retainer of U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,198 encloses the knot and ends of the shoelaces and does not accommodate bulkier shoelaces, such as are in common use today.
The bow knot fastener shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,122,805 has outlets for allowing the ends of the laces to be outside the holder, the bow knot remaining inside the holder, but in that device, the cap of the fastener is loose and screws on to the lower portion. This is not satisfactory since the cap may easily be lost or may be unscrewed by the wearer.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,238 also describes a shoelace knot keeper which encloses the knot and ends of the laces. In this device, two sections of a bottom wall are hinged together to allow insertion of the shoelaces into a recess in the bottom wall.